With 97% of UK teenagers now owning a mobile phone and spending nearly three hours a day online, according to Ofcom, parents are being urged to set digital boundaries as half term gets underway.
Many schools restrict phone usage during the school day, and see big improvements when they do, but during the holidays there’s no such safety net.
Now Lucy Naughton, Project Coordinator at Locker Space – a Yorkshire-based, family-run company that provides schools with signal-blocking phone pouches, shares her top five tips to help families hit reset on screen time this half term.
“We know from feedback from the many schools we work with that once phone pouches are in place, pupils engage better in lessons and there’s less disruption generally around the school site,” explains Lucy.
“Phone pouches help create a calmer, more focussed environment where students can really thrive. Every single school we work with has said they don’t want to go back to having phones in school. That says it all.”
Lucy’s five top tips for a half-term digital detox
1) Don’t be digitally distracted: How can we ask our children to spend less time on their mobile phones if we’re constantly on ours? Children copy what we do so it’s up to us to lead by example and not be on our phones all the time. Of course, many parents work during the holidays so need to check their emails but try and limit looking at your phone as much as possible.
2) Establish clear rules: Have a chat with your child about how much time they spend on their device and agree on times in the day when they’ll be offline. This could be at mealtimes or while you’re all out as a family.
3) Set up parental controls: Parental controls have many benefits including being able to limit screen time, restrict access to harmful content and allow parents to see their child’s online activity.
4) Encourage face to face interaction: For many young people their mobile phone is how they keep in touch with their friends, through social media apps or video and voice calling. Try to encourage them to meet their friends face to face, go for a walk or go out for lunch, and put the mobile phones away.
5) Safeguard sleep: Sleep is important for young people as it benefits the brain and promotes attention, memory and analytical thought. Try to explain to your child that being on their phone before they go to sleep isn’t a good idea as it makes it harder to fall asleep. The blue light from phone screens is similar to daylight and tricks the brain into thinking it’s daytime. It’s best if all the phones in the house are kept in one place overnight.
Sources:
- Ofcom – Children and Parents: Media Use and Attitudes Report 2025 (UK, children aged 3–17)
- Ofcom – Top Trends from our latest look at UK children’s lives online
